Some conventional image forming apparatus such as facsimile machines, copiers and printers come equipped with a voice recognition function to make the apparatus more user friendly. For example, a technique that utilizes voice recognition in a case where mail is created by a facsimile machine has been disclosed (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-136490, by way of example). Further, a technique that utilizes voice recognition to specify a telephone number or facsimile-transmission destination number has been disclosed (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-115327, by way of example).
With these conventional examples of an image forming apparatus, however, a problem which arises is that the voice recognition rate declines during output because of excessive operating noise.